As a treat and as a something fun to do while his dad was up, we all went to the the air show at Amberley. Amberley is a suburb south-west of Brisbane and is the location of an RAAF base. The show was officially titled Australian Defence Force 2008 Air Show. There were a range of defence force displays but of course the show really belonged to the planes.
The day was oppressively hot, about 32 degrees, and certainly much hotter under the sun. With limited shade opportunities (they seem to avoid planting shade trees on airstrips!) we all left a bit weary from the sun. A good day, however, was had by everybody, with memories of some amazing sights. These include:
1. The Roulettes. Sonja and Clinton have seen the Roulettes on display the last two years at RiverFire. As such it is very cool to actually see the planes parked on the runway. They performed a display later in the day, including a number of death defying stunts. In one display the fly at each other from opposite ends of the runway then turn and pass barely a wing span apart. In another display two planes fly the length of the runway, with one plane flying upside down directly above the other.
2. C17 Globemaster : This plane is gigantic. Clinton estimated that the height of the tail was over 10 metres above the ground. It is actually close to 17 metres tall. You can park two semi-trailers in it side by side. It makes the Hercules parked on the runway next to it look small and insignificant. During the course of the air show, a C17 did a fly by. It was amazing how quiet and manoeuvrable such a large plane could be.
3. The stunt planes. Several stunt pilots performed displays. Throughout the displays, a
commentary was given by a number of ground based observers through a series of loudspeakers situated along the length 
of the runway. During one display, they patched through the radio being used by the pilot. In this way they were able to interview him while his was performing the stunts. The pilot, "Pip", continued to talk throughout his manoeuvres, providing a commentary of his own stunts. The thought of twisting around in one of those planes is mind numbing. Much less, being able to maintain a conversation with the ground based commentators. Another stunt pilot cut a ribbon that was being held up by long poles with his wing tips.
